Izushita - 1.

If you were to ask me how I was doing, I would give you the normal, "I'm fine." Along with a reassuring smile. It's no different from you all who hide your real feelings and intentions behind a mask.

But if you were to ask me that question now... My answer would be totally different.

BOOM!

BANG!

"GET DOWN!"

BOOOOOM!

The sounds of war could be heard from all angles, the sounds of pained screaming, the sounds of crying and whimpering... It was everywhere, I couldn't escape it. Lifting my head from behind the earthen made wall, all I could see was destruction and death.

The once beautiful landscape full of trees was no where to be found. Instead, was just a barren earthen ground littered with corpses and the smell of death and despair, hell the fear from the normal civilians was so apparent it was like you could see it.

"Izu! The hell are you doing!? The front line needs you! Get your ass over there now!" Snapping my head to my right, I was greeted by the King of the Curan Kingdom... Normally the King would be the last person you would expect on the battle field, but that changes when your enemy is the United front that was formed to take you down.

It was like firefighters using water to take down a rampaging fire... It was an inevitable defeat, but yet our King fought as hard as he could...

The Kings eyes locked with mine as I nodded my head without a hint of hesitation. Using the mana in the surrounding atmosphere, I coated myself in it before taking off into the air, blowing everything around me away.

The sound of a jet breaking the sound barrier cracked loudly multiple times as I made my way towards the front line, killing the occasional warrior sent to impede my path.

My deep brown hair fluttered in the wind as I slowly came to a stop just above the ongoing battle for the border. My eyes scanned the enemy's territory, trying to find any idea of where the Leader of this united front could be.

'Might be multiple leaders, I doubt such a group could be formed by one person...' I thought to myself, dodging to my left to avoid an incoming mana arrow. Looking ahead of me, I saw the last person I'd ever want to meet on the battle field...

The Ruler of the Hugan Empire, the strongest mage... Someone like me who is more of an augmenter type would obviously struggle against such a person, but if it's him alone. I should be able to deal with him, with injuries of course.

"Hahaha! Great, just great! The great Izushita has come to end my life personally!" He shouted, his smile a crazed one. My face held that of indifference as I slowly descended in front of him, signaling the start of our duel...

Or that should've been the case.

"Haha, don't forget us!"

The sound of deep chuckling resounded through the air, even with all the background noise, I could still hear them clearly... Glancing around, I grimaced... It was a trap, they knew my King would send me here. They planned for it.

'But I got to say... All five Kings and rulers had come for my head... What a glorious way to die...' I mused, a small smile forming on my face.

"What could possibly have you smiling in such a place? Don't tell me you've gone senile!" The ruler of Hugan barked, laughing along with his fellow business partners. I shook my head as I eyed the man down, not an ounce of fear held within.

"... Nothing you should worry about... Just pleased with the idea of fighting the ten of you. After all, it's not every day you get to fight the strongest of each Kingdom, especially the rulers." I stated, my small smile turning serious.

The group of men didn't respond, they let out all of their held back auras, signaling they were ready to start this death match. Feeling the pressure exuding off of their bodies, I couldn't help but smile widely, the feeling of a good fight that I would remember for days to come was about to begin...

I couldn't possibly take this easy, can I?

...

"Ah... That was great." I spoke aloud, laying on the cold, bloodied earth. My eyes were gazing off into the clouded grey sky, rain pouring down washing me with its freezing temperature.

I didn't dare to move, my life was ending and I knew that... Missing limbs and giant holes here and there littered my body, painting me a swish cheese.

THUD!

"..." The sound of footsteps hitting the ground beside me caught my attention, turning my head with a slight grimace, I was faced with the sight of my King... The expression he wore filled me with a sense of pride, even if I shouldn't feel that way towards the one who betrayed me.

Turning my head back to face the sky, I spoke.

"... Surprised?" I joked, already knowing the answer. A gulp was heard, a sigh following close behind.

"Yeah... I sure am... Just what kind of monster are you? To be able to take down the five rulers and kings, alone at that, and still having enough life force to live afterward..." He rambled, his tone was that of respect but that slowly started to turn to pity, annoying me.

"It's too bad, you know? Someone of your caliber, someone who could be hailed the strongest in the world, was reduced to this... All because you decided to play the role of the loyal dog. I'm grateful, don't get me wrong, but come on? You held all that strength and yet let your life be thrown away by someone like me... Especially with such a obvious trap I led you too." The man mocked.

I didn't say anything and listened; my eyes closed.

"... I knew." I whispered with a pause, continuing moments later.

"... I knew you would betray me. It was quite obvious as I know your nature. Someone as prideful as you couldn't stand having someone stronger and better than you, stand by you. The thoughts of others matter more to you than anything else, and the thought of the people you lead comparing you to me angered you..." I explained, my voice growing quiet by the second.

I was dying and I was damn sure close to it... I felt my consciousness try to slip away multiple times during our little conversation, but I held on.

"..." Silence followed for the next few minutes. The sound of rain drops slamming to the ground, along with the occasional rumble of thunder was the only thing heard, until I decided to break it.

"... Remember how we first met?" I questioned, no doubt throwing the man off guard.

"Hm? Y-yeah, why?" He asked. I chuckled before replying...

"... Mind proving it? What was the first thing you ever asked me?" I tested, my throat growing drier and drier as I felt my heart beat slow significantly... Only a few more seconds of my life was left...

Hearing a chuckle, I cracked my eyelid only to be met by the man's tears running down his face.

"How are you?" He questioned, proving me right.

I smiled weakly before replying... Using the last of my pitiful life span...

"... Wonderful..." And with those words, my life had ended...

_________

"...Hnn." Feeling a tug at my consciousness, I let out a small groan of annoyance.

Wasn't I supposed to be dead? So let me fucking rest... However, I may have felt didn't matter as the feeling of something tugging at me replayed once more, causing my annoyance to grow unsteadily.

I ignored it once more, thinking that it would go away, but it didn't.

Snapping my eyes open, a frown plastered to my face, but that soon turned to amazement at the sight in front of me...

A giant golden-white lined wheel with sparkling effects stood in front of me, behind that was a giant light-blue door surrounded by fairy like beings.

Their wings were small but resembled every single color in the spectrum. Their bodies were that of light, making them look like extraterrestrial butterflies.

DING!

My attention was pulled back to the wheel, the source of where the bell like sound came from. Looking at it now, the wheels lights were lit up and flashing brightly, as if welcoming me to come use it.

Standing up, I carefully walked towards the wheel, making sure nothing would spring out at me and try to kill me... Like those Indiana jones traps. But, now that I was standing in front of the wheel perfectly fine, I relaxed a bit.

Studying the wheel, I saw that it had two settings, and two only. Nothing else was written anywhere, except for the sign next to the lever connected to the wheel. That one read, 'Pull this for usage.'

The other two, however, read something else.

[Body.]

[Abilities.]

I didn't know how to feel about this, but what I do know is that I died and that this is most likely just some childish fantasy I had developed at some point during my quick child hood. Deciding to humor myself, I pulled the lever and watched as the row under the title, [Body.] Begun to spin.

The sound of none-stop clicking had resounded for a while until it came to a stop, letting out a loud-

DING!

Grimacing slightly due to the volume of the ding, I read my chosen, 'body.'

[Tanjiro Kamado.]

[images.]

I laughed a little, my personality and life experience wouldn't match so well with such a character... But, he's one of my favorite characters in anime if I had to choose, so I don't mind... Before the world went to shit, I only watched a couple animes... Not many were completed.

'... Eh what the hell, this is pretty fun.' I mused, my hand on the lever, pulling it once more. The same thing happened except under the, [Abilities.] window. The wheel spun and spun leaving that annoying clicking sound after every second.

DING!

[Demon Slayer Mark. (BOOSTED.)] My left eye brown raised in confusion, I know what the demon slayer mark is, but 'Boosted'? Does this mean that the effects of having one is boosted? How much? two times? five times?

'Haah, whatever... It doesn't even matter...' I thought, pulling the lever once more. The way I was pulling it was as if I was impatient, and I was. I just want to go to the afterlife... I don't know why I was pulled here after my death, but it's really starting to get on my nerves...

DING!

[Atomic Level Control.] My eye brows raised, clearly surprised at the ability I 'gained' through this wheel. If I had something like this before I died, I could've easily become even stronger then I was before...

Whatever, no use crying over spilled milk.

Without wasting time, I pulled the lever twice this time, trying to see if it would speed up. Much to my surprise, an extra part of the wheel sprung out and started to spin with the same bright, dancing white lights.

DING!

DING!

[Meiregan. (CUSTOM - IMAGE.)]

[SUPERNATURAL HEALING. (WOLVERINE.)]

To say I wasn't surprised is an understatement... Sure, it was quite the deal before hand, but now it was kind of boring. Gacha has never been my thing, especially with moments like these. All the excitement and anticipation had died out and now I don't really care...

I just want to get this over with.

Sighing, I pulled the lever again, for the final spin...

DING!

[CHAKRA\ALL AFINITIES]

Clicking my tongue in annoyance, I glanced towards the door, silently hoping that it would be my way of escaping this terrible place of a limbo.

CLICK!

DOOM!

A sense of relief flowed throughout my body as the giant light-blue door slowly cracked open, revealing a blinding white light that engulfed the fairies, causing it to get brighter.

I took a step forward, but was stopped when a transparent, light-blue screen appeared in front of my eyes.

[Thank you for using our wheel! Everything spun will be given to you after you set foot through the door! Your destination is random, but we hope that these gifts treat you well! All knowledge on how to use your abilities effectively will be given to you upon transmigration, or rebirth. Please proceed!]

Shaking my head, I walked through the door in a hurry. I was getting tired and I wasn't planning on continuing these entities joke any longer.

As I stepped through, the screen disappeared along with all of my other senses except for touch... The only thing I felt though, was the feeling of being bathed in warm light.

'... Am I going to heaven...? I didn't expect that...' I mused, a small smile would be seen on my face had I had one, but well... Yeah.

The peaceful feeling continued for a while before it was suddenly replaced by a heart wrenching cold, causing me to gasp in shock as I clenched my buttocks.

I shuddered under the temperature as I frantically looked around, but all I saw was the initial darkness that invited me when I walked through the door...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N!

Yo!

Came up with this idea on the spot, so it may seem like the writing quality dropped mid chapter, and that's because I got really tired... Anyway, if you don't like Naruto or demon slayer stuff, this isn't for you.

Move on, and don't complain... I'm not your therapist.